Courage – Racial Discrimination & Gender Discrimination

Group Project• Thesis: This project takes into account women in history and their

significance. It also incorporates their courage of their time period. It starts off in order from the past to the most present women of significance. It touched topics on Racial Discrimination, Gender Discrimination and/or both; due to the time period and the challenges they face. More details about these women will be discussed in the following slides.

1. Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley known also as Molly Pitcher.2. Jane Addams3. Alice Paul.4. Rosa Parks.5. Maya Angelou6. Bella Abzug

Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley

• Born 1754- died 1833• Nicknamed “Molly Pitcher”• Significant for the Battle at Monmouth on

June 28, 1778 - She fought in the battle when her

husband was injured

Gender Discrimination during Revolutionary Era

• Women were not allowed to join or fight with the military

• Not allowed to own property unless they were widowed or divorced

• Jobs were centered in the house• Work outside home was limited • Women were properties of their husbands

Courageous Act

• She could had been killed• She could have been captured and tortured or

sexually abused• Men were stronger than women, on average• Still, she went against the norm

By Xeng Yang

Jane Addams - Courage/Significance

• Fought for social reforms & Women’s suffrage

• Fought for women, children, and immigrants

• Wanted to make a difference for the better for immigrants & women in general

• Addams thought that pushing towards integrating the poor and rich would help solve the differences

Courage/Significance, cont.

Accomplishments• Founder of Hull House Settlement (1889)• First woman president of National Conference

of Social Work (1910)• Chairman of International Congress of Women

(1915)• Won Nobel Peace Prize for work on behalf of

International Peace (1931)

Discrimination

Racial/Class Discrimination• Addams was a white upper-class educated working

woman; she didn’t experience much racial discrimination

• Helped fight immigration discrimination• Addam’s most powerful argumentative support was

that “society should respect values & traditions carried over to U.S. by immigrants”

Discrimination Cont.• Gender Discrimination• Addams lived in a period of gender discrimination towards

the women• With encouragement from her father and many others

around her, she helped fight the women’s suffrage rights movements

• She also help pushed women’s voting rights. • Her argument for women’s rights towards the politicians

were “if the president wanted enough votes to get elected as the next president, he should allow women to gain voting rights, therefore he would be able to receive more than half of his votes towards becoming the next U.S. President”

By: Wendy Vang

Alice Paul: Courage in the face of Gender Discrimination

• Faced Gender Discrimination as a result of her involvement in the women’s movement in Great Britain and the United States.

By Maria Gilmore

Against True Womanhood

• In England, the women employed tactics such as destroying private property and interrupting the House of Lords. These tactics were picked to show that women did not have to be passive.

Courage to March

• During a march on March 3, 1913 down Pennsylvania Avenue it was reported that women were assaulted by male spectators. Alice Paul was happy with the success of the march because it was highly publicized.

Courage to Protest

• The best example of gender discrimination Alice Paul faced was due to her actions once World War I started. Alice Paul and members of the National Woman’s Party (NWP) picketed the White House.

This was done to hold the president and party in office responsible for

failing to pass a federal amendment granting women the vote.

Courage to Protest

• Alice Paul and many of the women were arrested on several occasions on bogus charges. Alice Paul and the women who continued to protest were sent to a workhouse.

Gender Discrimination

• It was bad enough that they were protesting during war time; it was worse that they were women.• Alice Paul and many other women

were sent to a workhouse.

Gender Discrimination

• At the workhouse they turned to hunger strikes. As a result they were force-fed.• Since Alice Paul was the leader she

was placed into a psychiatric hospital for abnormal behavior.

After Jail

• Alice Paul and all the other women were released from the workhouse.• President Wilson ended up backing

a federal amendment granting women the vote.

The Result of Courage

• The amendment was ratified on August 28, 1920.• As a white woman, Alice Paul only

faced gender discrimination and did not have to deal with racial discrimination.

Work CitedButler, Amy. Two Paths to Equality: Alice Paul and Ethel M. Smith in the Era

Debate, 1921-1929. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. Conversations with Alice Paul: Woman Suffrage and the Equal Rights

Amendment; An Interview Conducted by Amelia R. Fry.” Berkeley, CA: Regional Oral History Office, University of California/Berkeley, 1976.

Rosa Parks – Courage to face Racial Discrimination.

• Rosa Parks faced Racial Discrimination on Dec. 1, 1955 on the bus in Montgomery. (Rosa Parks Biography, pg.2).

• Rosa Parks had the courage to not give up her seat, and the discrimination she got was through her race of not giving up her seat as a African American women, whom by law is suppose to give up her seat. This law was enforced by officers in Parks’ time period that is why she got arrested.

Rosa Parks – Courage to face Racial Discrimination cont.

• Rosa Parks might have been discriminated by gender too; but mainly she was discriminated against by race because she was Black.

• She worked at tailoring for a Montgomery Fair department store.

• This was a job for women but sadly she lost her job, due to her act of courage.

• Black people at the time including Rosa Parks did not find it suitable to ride the bus because it was a humiliating experienced. They were segregated by the segregation laws and black had to sit in the back rather than in the front of the bus.

Rosa Parks – Courage to face Racial Discrimination cont.

• A result of this racial discrimination she stated, “she was physically tired, but that she was tired of giving in.” (Rosa Parks Biography, pg.2). – As a result of not giving up her seat she showed courage.

• She was a woman; which others seen as a women with courage because the event that took place gave a push to the civil rights movement.

• She was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus. She was charged and had to pay a fine of a total of “$14; $10 for the fees and $4 for the court fees.” (Rosa Parks Biography, pg.2). As we all know back then the value of the dollar was worth more so during that time it was a high fine that she had to pay.

Rosa Parks – Courage to face Racial Discrimination cont.

• It is safe to say that Rosa Parks was felt humiliated by the event that took place. African Americans are treated wrongfully in this time period; one of those person was Rosa Parks.

• You didn’t know if the policemen would charge her with a more serious offense or maybe she might have to pay a greater fine?

• During Rosa Parks time frame it is scary to be a African woman who is arrested by a cop.

Rosa Parks – Courage to face Racial Discrimination cont.

• During Rosa Parks time period cops didn’t have a good reputation. In the jail cell you don’t know if they had a sanitary environment; you don’t know she might of gotten sick being in jail.

• We can speculate that they might of done something that could cause her harm, or she might of even faced going to prison, instead of serving time in jail.

• So in essence you didn’t know what the cops would have done to African American women in that time period.

Work Cited Page• Rosa Parks Biography. http://www.biography.com/articles/Rosa-Parks-

9433715?part=1(accessed May. 1 2010).• Rosa Parks Biography. http://www.biography.com/articles/Rosa-Parks-

9433715?part=2(accessed May 1, 2010).• Rosa Parks & the Civil Rights Movement Rosa Parks Pictures and Other

Interesting Photos, http://www.rosaparksfacts.com/rosa-parks-pictures-photos.php?type=civil-rights (accessed May 1, 2010).

by Tou Xiong

Maya Angelou

• Born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928

• Growing up she had to face racial discrimination that was enforced in the south

• Was raised with traditional African American life and had religious faith

• Around 1964, she involved herself with the Civil Rights Movement by working closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Served as the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership

• One of the first African American women who was able to publicly speak of her personal life

• Became recognized and respected as a spokesperson for black people and women

• Known for her series of autobiographical volumes which focus on her childhood and early adulthood experiences

• Her books were focused on themes such as identity, family and racism

Works cited

• Academy of achievement. (2010, February 15). Retrieved from http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ang0bio-1

• Maya angelou the official website. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mayaangelou.com/

• Maya angelou biography. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/articles/Maya-Angelou-9185388

Bella Abzug - Gender Discrimination By: Jessica M. Castillo

• July 24, 1920 -March 31, 1998 NY, NY• Member of the U.S. House of Representatives– NY’s 19th & 20th district– In office from 1-3-71 / 1-3-77– Democrat– Jewish

Bella Abzug• Lawyer, congresswoman, social activist • A leader of the women’s movement• Joined other leading feminists (Gloria Steiren & Betty

Friedan) to found the National Women’s Political Caucus

• 1st Jewish woman in the U.S. congress• Chair of the National Commission on the observance of

International Woman’s year• Planed the 19977 national women’s conference

(appointed by Gerald Ford)• Led Jimmy Carter’s commission on women

Bella Abzug

• Parents Russian Jewish immigrants– Dad died when Abzug was 13 Not allowed to say

the Mourner’s Kaddish because it is Jewish law that only males are to say it; she did so anyway because her father had no sons. This was one of her first feminist actions.

– Education - Law degree from Columbia University Post grad work at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Bella Abzug - Legal & Political career.

• Legal & Political career.–Worked with women’s labor laws –There were very few attorneys when

she started out (1940s)–Took on civil rights cases in the south

Bella Abzug - Legal & Political career.Cont.

– Appealed the case of Willie McGee• A black man who was convicted in 1945 of raping a

white woman in Laurel Mississippi Sentenced to death by an all white jury who took 2.5 minutes to deliberate.

• Active in women’s Strike for Peace • Was on the master list of Nixon Political

opponents• Was 1 of the 1st members of congress to

support gay rights

Bella Abzug

• After office• Founded and ran several women’s advocacy

organizations In 79 founded the advocacy program Women U.S.A.

• Continued to lead feminist advocacy events• Served as grand Marshall of the August 1980

26th Women’s Equality day in NY

Works cited• Books:• Levine, Suzanne. 2007. Bella Abzug: how one tough broad from the Bronx fought Jim

Crow and Joe Mc Carthy, pissed off Jimmy Carter, battled for the rights of women and workers, rallied against war and for the planet, and shook up politics along the way New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

• Newfield, Jack. 2003. American rebels. New York: Nation Books.

• Abzug, Bella. 1972. Bella! Ms. Abzug goes to Washington. New York: Saturday Review Press.

• Journal:

• Zarnow, Leandra. 2008. Braving Jim Crow to Save Willie McGee: Bella Abzug, the Legal Left and Civiil Rights Innovation1 1948-1951. Law & Social Inquiry: 1003-1041.

Conclusion• Each of these women have their differences yet they all share

certain bonds.• The bond each share are life experiences and/or goals such as

Courage.• The motives behind these courage are the hardship that each

women face.• Such as Racial Discrimination, Gender Discrimination, and/or

both. These are the Similarities that these women share or have in common. Each had their own courage and it is expressed or shown throughout history in many different ways. Having this knowledge of these courage’s women you might have a better understand of women in history.